The TAI Anka is an advanced Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) class Unmanned Aerial System developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for the requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces. Envisioned in the early 2000s for tactical surveillance and reconnaissance missions. ANKA incorporates a heavy-fuel engine and electro-expulsive Ice Protection System with an Advanced Ground Control Station and dual datalink allowing operational security and ease. The system is expandable with a Transportable Image Exploitation Station, Radio Relay, Remote Video Terminal and SATCOM.The drone is named after a phoenix-like mythological creature called Zümrüd-ü Anka (Anka kuşu in Turkish.)
All airborne and ground-based flight control software is developed by TAI while payload hardware and software items are aimed to be developed by national sub-contractors, such as Aselsan and Milsoft. UAV operations are supported by highly sophisticated ground control system with complete redundancy, developed by a domestic defence company Savronik.[6] Whole mission segments of the air vehicle can be managed, monitored and controlled by a GCS. A pre-programmed mission plan can be loaded before the flight begins or can be altered during the flight. All the imagery stream of the payloads can be displayed and recorded in real time and all the payloads can be controlled from the GCS. ATOLS allows the air vehicle to perform its operation without operator intervention, including the most critical phases which are landing and take-off.
The pusher type piston-prop propulsion system integrates a Thielert Centurion 2.0 turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The engine driving electrical power generators delivers a sea level power of 155hp. It is equipped to be restarted in flight. The propulsion is provided by a three-blade constant speed propeller. The bladder type fuel tank located in the centre of the fuselage is fitted with fuel level sensors and jet pumps. The fuel is fed in to the engine via a collector tank. The fuel system is also equipped with filters, coolers, pumps and other instrumentation. The engine burns JP8 fuel or the equivalent. The propulsion system provides an endurance of 24 hours at an altitude of 30,000ft.
